{"id":100822,"date":"2025-08-22T02:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T02:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/100822\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T02:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T02:38:17","slug":"d-backs-star-ketel-marte-apologizes-explains-recent-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/100822\/","title":{"rendered":"D-backs star Ketel Marte apologizes, explains recent absence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aug 18, 2025, 09:00 PM ET<\/p>\n<p>PHOENIX &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/32512\/ketel-marte\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ketel Marte<\/a> is having one of the best seasons of his career on the field.<\/p>\n<p>That hasn&#8217;t stopped a fair amount of criticism for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/ari\/arizona-diamondbacks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> slugger off of it.<\/p>\n<p>The All-Star second baseman apologized through an interpreter Monday for missing three games following the All-Star break after flying back to his home in the Dominican Republic &#8212; a situation that has apparently been festering in the clubhouse over the past month.<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old said he initially expected to return to Phoenix immediately following the break but was &#8220;frustrated&#8221; and &#8220;in a bad spot&#8221; after he learned his residence in Scottsdale, Arizona, had been burglarized during the break, according to the interpreter.<\/p>\n<p>The D-backs were playing a crucial stretch of games &#8212; fighting for playoff position ahead of the July 31 trade deadline. Arizona placed Marte on the restricted list for the first two games of his absence and then he didn&#8217;t play a third game after returning to the club.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/45969697\/diamondbacks-ketel-marte-hits-9th-inning-go-ahead-home-runs-back-back-games-side-plate\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/r1531506_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In response to criticisms that he takes too many games off, Marte said he has dealt with injury issues and is following a plan designed by the training staff. Marte has missed 33 games this year, the majority of which were because of a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know there&#8217;s an elephant in the room and I&#8217;ll just say what I want to say about it,&#8221; D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. &#8220;I know that Ketel talked to you guys and I&#8217;m proud of him for doing that. That&#8217;s not easy for him to do. I know he showed some vulnerability and I&#8217;m really proud of him for digging in the way that he did.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I&#8217;ll say about Ketel are the things that I know &#8212; he&#8217;s a great teammate, he&#8217;s a great young man, he plays hard every single day for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He just wants to win baseball games. That&#8217;s it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Marte has dealt with a torrent of criticism <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/sports\/mlb\/diamondbacks\/2025\/08\/14\/trade-ketel-marte-updates-teammates-grumble-arizona-diamondbacks-star\/85664809007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">after a report in the Arizona Republic<\/a> last week said that some teammates were frustrated with the second baseman&#8217;s behavior over the past month and that his absence after the All-Star break might have partially caused the team&#8217;s collapse before the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p>The D-backs came into the season with high expectations but are 60-66.<\/p>\n<p>Arizona won the three games Marte missed after the All-Star break &#8212; sweeping the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/stl\/st-louis-cardinals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> &#8212; but then lost nine of 10 when he returned to the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>That affected the organization&#8217;s approach at the trade deadline. The Diamondbacks sent third baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/32367\/eugenio-suarez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a> and first baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/35066\/josh-naylor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Naylor<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/sea\/seattle-mariners\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seattle Mariners<\/a> in separate deals, outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/31399\/randal-grichuk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Randal Grichuk<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/kc\/kansas-city-royals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kansas City Royals<\/a> and right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/32968\/merrill-kelly\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Merrill Kelly<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/tex\/texas-rangers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Rangers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Marte is having a terrific all-around offensive season, having entered Monday batting .297 with 23 homers and 56 RBIs. The three-time All-Star has been with the organization since 2017 and was key to the team&#8217;s unexpected run to the World Series in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug 18, 2025, 09:00 PM ET PHOENIX &#8212; Ketel Marte is having one of the best seasons of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-100822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}